


Blue Sky In The Distance

by telperion_15



Category: Primeval
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pre-Relationship, Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-29
Updated: 2012-01-29
Packaged: 2017-10-30 07:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/329232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/telperion_15/pseuds/telperion_15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team get caught in the rain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue Sky In The Distance

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for talliw, for the prompt 'Nick/Jenny, cloudburst'.
> 
> Minor spoilers for episode 2.04.

The rain was unexpected, one of those summer storms that boil up into a torrential downpour with no warning, sending people scurrying for cover.  
  
Nick had headed towards a rickety old lean-to on one side of the yard, with Jenny in tow. He thought Stephen and Abby had made it to the truck, while Connor and the soldiers had gone back inside the barn where the anomaly was located.  
  
It had only been a short dash to their admittedly rather ramshackle shelter, but Nick’s hair was still plastered to his head, while Jenny’s had escaped from its elegant chignon, and was hanging down in damp rats-tails around her face.  
  
Her makeup had smudged a little around the edges too, leaving her with faintly bruised-looking eyes, and streaks on her skin where water droplets had tracked down her cheeks.  
  
Surprisingly, however, she didn’t seem particularly annoyed by the turn events had taken. Amused was closer to the mark, Nick thought. She apparently wasn’t bothered that she now looked less than immaculately turned out, and that she was stuck in a shed with a scruffy, eccentric professor.  
  
“Are you okay?” he asked anyway, for the sake of appearances.  
  
“I’m fine. This is my second soaking in as many weeks. I’m getting used to it,” Jenny replied wryly.  
  
Her lipstick was the only part of her mask still undamaged, and red lips quirked upwards as she spoke, into an accepting smile that would have been an impossibility mere months ago.  
  
“But this isn’t what you signed up for, is it?” Nick said.  
  
“I will admit, I’m more used to sitting in plush, _dry_ offices,” Jenny conceded. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean I can’t get job satisfaction out of hiding from the rain in a dirty old shack.”  
  
Nick laughed at that, inclining his head apologetically. “Not much I can do about the weather, I’m afraid.”  
  
“And here I was thinking you could control the elements!”  
  
Jenny chuckled too, but Nick suddenly noticed she was shivering slightly. While today’s outfit was certainly more practical than usual – the flat shoes and slacks much more suited to chasing anomalies – the thin silk blouse she wore was doing nothing to keep her warm, particularly now that it was rain-dampened as well.  
  
“Here,” Nick said gallantly, shrugging off his jacket and settling it round her shoulders. Daringly, he left his arm there as well, telling himself that body heat would help just as much. “Can’t have you catching a chill, can we, C…”  
  
He stopped. There was a moment of strained silence.  
  
“You were about to call me Claudia then, weren’t you?” Jenny questioned. She sounded resigned.  
  
“Sorry,” Nick mumbled. He expected to be pushed away, yelled at, but Jenny didn’t move, didn’t try and extract herself from his encircling arm. Perhaps she realised that there was nowhere to go except back out into the rain. Perhaps he had got away with it. This time.  
  
“Perhaps I should just change my name,” Jenny muttered. “It would make life easier.” She tilted her head, smiling up at him ruefully. “I’m almost used to it by now, anyway.”  
  
“Sorry,” said Nick again. “ _Jenny_ ,” he added firmly, drawing a wider smile and a faint roll of the eyes from the woman sheltering against him.  
  
They were quiet for a few moments, staring out at the falling sheets of water, each occupied with their own thoughts. Somewhere behind them the rain was finding its way through a gap, the hurried dripping a counterpoint to constant drumming of raindrops on the roof of the shed. But it wasn’t dripping on them, and Nick counted that a plus.  
  
He realised that he was quietly enjoying himself, and felt no desire to move. Ever since he’d found himself in this altered world he felt as if he had been fighting against something – Stephen, the anomalies, his own sanity. There hadn’t been time to adjust, to find a new rhythm to his life.  
  
But this felt familiar. This was what he knew. Waiting on an anomaly, his team around him, working together. It was almost fun, and that was what had been missing. Even the rain couldn’t put a dampener on it.  
  
And although the woman standing next to him was different to the one he remembered, he was slowly coming to realise that that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. She might not be Claudia, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t like Jenny.  
  
He sighed, and felt Jenny shift a little in his one-armed embrace.  
  
“Deep thoughts?” she asked lightly, although when he looked at her, her eyes betrayed that she knew exactly what was on his mind.  
  
“Nothing for you to worry about,” he said, smiling and hoping that his words sounded sincere. He _wanted_ them to be sincere.  
  
Jenny raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps I should be the judge of that,” she said bossily, although she didn’t push further, and she was smiling too.  
  
Nick noticed that a few strands of hair had fallen down across her cheek, and without thinking he lifted his free hand to brush them out of the way. Jenny blushed slightly, and Nick quickly pulled his hand away.  
  
“Thank you,” she said quietly. Then she chuckled. “I expect I look a fright.”  
  
“You look lovely,” Nick told her, once again acting before he could consider.  
  
Jenny’s blush deepened, and she turned away slightly to look out over the yard. “I wonder when the rain will stop,” she said quickly, not quite succeeding in hiding the pleasure in her voice.  
  
“Hard to say,” Nick replied, going along with the pretence for both their sakes. “But I’d imagine it will wear itself out pretty quickly.” He pointed. “Look, there’s already some blue sky in the distance.”  
  
A sudden shout from the barn distracted them from their contemplation of the weather.  
  
“Professor!”  
  
A small shape emerged from the open barn doors, hesitating momentarily before streaking across the yard in the direction of the truck and shooting underneath it. Its outline was blurred in the rain, and Nick couldn’t make out many features besides a streamlined build and two powerful hind legs.  
  
Seconds later, Connor appeared in the doorway, looking around until his eyes lighted on Nick and Jenny. Nick pointed towards the truck, where Stephen and Abby were carefully getting of each side in order to try and trap the animal under the vehicle. Both of them were drenched again within a few seconds.  
  
Jenny sighed, and started to slither out of Nick’s jacket. “I guess we won’t be waiting for that blue sky after all,” she observed.  
  
Placing his hands on her shoulders, Nick halted her progress. “Keep it,” he said softly. “It’ll keep you warm.”  
  
“What about you?”  
  
Unable to tell her that his body was still warm where she’d been pressed against him, Nick just shrugged instead. “I’ll manage.”  
  
Jenny smiled, and pulled the jacket closer around herself. “Thank you.”  
  
“You’re welcome, Jenny.” Nick looked towards the truck, which now had Connor and two of the soldiers clustered around it as well. “Time to get wet again.”  
  
Jenny sighed wryly. “I suppose so.”


End file.
